Anyone have a clue why my BH 3300?

[bmw50]

Recently bought a used 3300 and took it out for a first time spin. Running it in All Metal mode, it would have a high tone beep at the end of almost ever sweep with a reading of 199 and the pointer at the most far right location. It would also hit every piece of iron, but I would expect that in a trashy area and it seemed many of the high tone beeps happened when moving the coil away from an iron object.
Has anyone experienced this? Any solutions or recommendations?
I have a Fisher F2, which is similar but doesn

 

[Dave J.]

Sounds like the internal phase calibration may have drifted. If that's what it is, sorry, it's not something you can fix yourself, it'd have to come back to the factory.

You may find that you can silence the "false high tones" by lowering the sensitivity setting. That's not an ideal solution for obvious reasons, but it may make the machine usable where otherwise it would be unusable.


--Dave J.

 

[Darkflight]

You are "falsing" that is what a 199 signal is typically. It ussually occurs when the ground balance is too hot. It is critical to proper performance but is also easily misunderstood.

For now the cure is to turn the GB adjustor to the preset-full CCW. Max setting on mine is typically straight up-only 1/4 of the potential adjustment. I rarely am able to run fully ground balanced due to hot rocks-causing 199 signals. The cure is to back off the GB setting till it stops.

Also the machine gets very good depth at only 1 setting above bottom on my machine-I rarely turn the gain or power any higher except when running in a open field on pinpoint. I get best depth at 2nd from lowest power setting & ground balance "spot on". But thats not always possible so you must adjust to suit conditions.

Set the machine to pinpoint and find a clean patch of soil in the area you will be hunting. Then push pinpoint aprox 1 foot above ground & lower the coil evenly. If the sound raises turn the GB CW...Then repeat till the sound stays even or silent when lowering the coil. Then with the coil about 1" from the soil. Raise the coil-if the sound increases when the coil is raised turn the GB CCW.

Sometimes it is a fine line-especially in an area with EMI or "hot " rocks laden with minerals.

In such areas I typically lower the GB setting just enough to prevent falsing.

This machine is not the easiest to learn-but it really works well for me now that I've learned it.Better than the F5 I had for my style hunting but probably harder to understand.The key for me was turning it down & learning to GB as needeed.

A bonus is the coils are cheap & the 10 " really sings on my machine but the 4" will pull coins out of heavy trash like nothing else I own...
Cheers!

 

[bmw50]

Thanks for the comments!

After looking at troubleshooting area in the Owner's Manual, it too said that ground balance is a contributor to false high tones.
As soon as I get a chance and the weather lightens up a little, I'll get out again and do some tweaking with the ground balance.
I admit it, I've always had a bad habit of believing more is better and dialing down the sensitivity just goes against my nature. I will try to force myself and give it an honest try.

One more thing... this detector has a two piece lower rod made of plastic and aluminum tubing. The aluminum tubing comes within 6" of the coil. I can't image that being good for detection depth. I ordered an all plastic version to see if it changes anything like depth and stability. Would an all plastic lower rod be any better? Or am I wasting my money?

Thanks again.

 

[zoomrr69]

Put the knob in the middle and drop the sen down to nothing.....
This machine never misses......You have to learn its language and understand the metal spectrum....
Trick..learn the notch feature...
Dig what metal you are looking for and good luck

 

[A1MTD]

All Pretty good suggestions but your problem may need more than a simple turning down of the sensitivity, I think you should maybe consider the first answer on this page, who knows these detectors more than anyone? Hint.......Answer those whom made it, and even if Dave J never designed it I'm sure he is quite familiar with the problems with them, I think if your problem persist every time you are swinging it no matter where it is, you should consider what Dave J is telling you. JMO. Thanks
A1MTD